Passenger pigeons, which once filled the nation’s skies, died out a century ago

August 30, 2014 1:06 AM

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A new book by Mark Avery recounts the sad tale of how the most common bird in the U.S. – the passenger pigeon – was driven to extinction a century ago.

The very last passenger pigeon in existence died a century ago, on September 1, 1914. Her name was Martha and her empty cage still stands in a Cincinnati zoo. A new book by Mark Avery both commemorates and mourns the loss of that variety of bird, which once flew by the millions across Canada and the...